New Tournament sign-up system

Copied and pasted from the Tournaments forum...

The tournament entry system should be changed.

Each user should be able to tick a box, declaring their interest in a certain tournament from a list of all different tournament types (Rating band/unbanded, size of group, time controls, pairing method and size).

Once a certain number of players have declared interest in a certain tournament type, create the tournament in the tournaments screen as present (albeit, partially filled). Leave the tournament open for a wee while (a week or something) for others to join and hopefully fill it up. If it isn't full, kick it off anyway, once the number of players is over the min.

A very important safeguard would be needed with this system though. When the tournament gets created, a message would need to be sent to the people who had pre-declared interest in the tournament, which says something like "Such and such a tournament will start in 1 week, click here to confirm that you want to take part."

Only once the user has clicked on the link are they officially entered into the tournament, which has a definite start date of 1 week's time (say).

Without that safeguard, people could register interest, and then forget about it and suddenly they could be entered into tournaments that they are no longer interested in.

Its quite a different implementation, but I think it'd be a great step forward.

D

Nice suggestion!

And also that we can monitor the interest of the type of tournament we are interested in...?

Okey, here's my preference:
8-group, 3/7, banded.
and
4-group, 3/7, unbanded.

Originally posted by FabianFnas
Nice suggestion!

And also that we can monitor the interest of the type of tournament we are interested in...?

Okey, here's my preference:
8-group, 3/7, banded.
and
4-group, 3/7, unbanded.

[vid]11[/vid]

Originally posted by XanthosNZ
[vid]11[/vid]

That vote is pretty meaningless really, IMO.

D

Originally posted by Ragnorak
Copied and pasted from the Tournaments forum...

The tournament entry system should be changed.

Each user should be able to tick a box, declaring their interest in a certain tournament from a list of all different tournament types (Rating band/unbanded, size of group, time controls, pairing method and size).

Once a certain number of players have dec ...[text shortened]... in.

Its quite a different implementation, but I think it'd be a great step forward.

D

Whats wrong with how it is?

Loads of different tournments, loads of different timescales, loads of different entry requirements based on rating.

With the new available tournaments on your My Home page you can now see at a glance what is available based on your current rating.

Originally posted by adramforall
Whats wrong with how it is?

Loads of different tournments, loads of different timescales, loads of different entry requirements based on rating.

With the new [b]available tournaments on your My Home page you can now see at a glance what is available based on your current rating.[/b]

People have left because the type of tournament they'd like isn't available. Look at the tournaments page now, there are only banded tournaments available. In fact out of the past 4 pages, there are 3 unbanded tournaments. That's 3 tournaments from 120, or 2.5%.

Surely having tournaments created when the demand is there, is the way to go. Currently, people are probably entering what is available, as a next best. Why not enable them to state the exact tournament they want to enter? This could also allow people to canvas in the tournaments forum. Instead of "Any chance of such and such a tournament", they could canvas others to show interest in the tournament so it gets created quicker. Subs would be working together rather than having to rely on Admin the whole time.

Does anybody get the idea expressed in the original post?

D

Originally posted by Ragnorak
People have left because the type of tournament they'd like isn't available. Look at the tournaments page now, there are only banded tournaments available. In fact out of the past 4 pages, there are 3 unbanded tournaments. That's 3 tournaments from 120, or 2.5%.

Surely having tournaments created when the demand is there, is the way to go. Currently, ...[text shortened]... on Admin the whole time.

Does anybody get the idea expressed in the original post?

D

But if people didn't like the banded tournaments then they would not fill up.

Who has left because the type of tourney they like is not available?

Personally I prefer the banded tournaments as you have a chance of winning, in an unbanded with people way above your rating you know its a waste of time as you will inevitably be beaten.

I am not saying unbandeds should not be done but obviously the banded are more popular hence the reason more are created.

Those that like unbanded will be pleased to see that the 4 most recent tournaments are for them, however they are all already fully subscribed.

Originally posted by adramforall
But if people didn't like the banded tournaments then they would not fill up.

Who has left because the type of tourney they like is not available?

Personally I prefer the banded tournaments as you have a chance of winning, in an unbanded with people way above your rating you know its a waste of time as you will inevitably be beaten.

I am not s ...[text shortened]... hat the 4 most recent tournaments are for them, however they are all already fully subscribed.

In this post you claim that if people wanted unbanded tournaments then they would fill up and then later you point out that the most recent unbanded tournaments have all filled up. Could this not indicate demand? Whether or not banded tournaments fill up isn't the issue, there is demand for unbanded tournaments and it makes sense to provide tournaments for people who want those too.

Rag's suggestion is a way of ensuring that tournaments are made according to demand.

Ragnorak, excellent idea.

1. It gives the players what they want -- Tournament formats they like will automagically be created when enough interest has been shown.
2. It gives the admins what they *should* want -- Increased automation and less overhead on running the site.

Originally posted by tmetzler
Ragnorak, excellent idea.

1. It gives the players what they want -- Tournament formats they like will automagically be created when enough interest has been shown.
2. It gives the admins what they *should* want -- Increased automation and less overhead on running the site.

Thanks.

I forgot to add that you should be able to use the system to create a list of tournaments that you would be interested in. My original post may have given the impression that you could only register interest in 1 type of tournament.

On a side note, I was wondering why the idea was getting no support. It's pretty obvious now that people couldn't rec it cos they had no recs left in the month. Now that the recs are back, the original post is more than 1 week old, and so will not show up on the list of recommended posts.

D

Originally posted by Ragnorak
Thanks.

I forgot to add that you should be able to use the system to create a list of tournaments that you would be interested in. My original post may have given the impression that you could only register interest in 1 type of tournament.

On a side note, I was wondering why the idea was getting no support. It's pretty obvious now that people could ...[text shortened]... l post is more than 1 week old, and so will not show up on the list of recommended posts.

D

so i just recced the last post in this thread since that is only 1 day old 🙂 maybe that will work?

This is how I see it working...

There would be a page where each user can register interest in specific tournaments. This page would also show a list of tournaments that you have already registered interest in.

So to register interest, you would choose settings from the following (choosing from a drop box for each)...
TO: NA, 1, 3, 7, 14, 21, Any
TB: NA, 1, 3, 7, 14, 21, Any
Group Size: 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, Half (entrants), All (entrants), Any. (Also maybe 3 or less, 4 or less, 6 or less, 8 or less OR 2-4, 4-6, 4-8)
Banded: Yes, No
If Banded is yes: Show only bands to which I am eligible to enter. (This could be manually updated later if my banding changes (Having this update automagically would be great 🙂 )

I think Entrants Min/Max should be set automatically using an algorithm working on the settings chosen above. Having said that, I'm not sure what determines min/max entrants, so that's a detail to be ironed out. If Group Size is Half or All, then include Max entrants as an option.

I'm also not sure if different pairing methods are still being used, so haven't included them above.

Assuming, I chose TO=1, TB=1, Group Size=2 and banded=No, then that will be added to the list of tournaments that I would be interested in taking part in.
I could also register interest in TO=7, TB=Any, Group Size=8 or less, Banded=No.

Then, there would be a new page in the Tournaments section: Possible Tournaments (or some other better name), which would show a list of all tournaments that people have registered an interest in. This list should be sortable (for example by TO, TB, Number of interested people, etc), and filterable, so you could choose only to see TO=7 tournaments. Along with the details of the tournament, the current number of interested people should be shown (along with the min for creation), as well as a button to automatically add the tournament to your list of interested tournaments.

Then once the min number of interested partys has been reached, the tournament gets created and is viewable on the current tournament screen, as per now. The tournament stays open until filled, or until a set time has passed (1 week, for example. Whatever time is chosen should be constant, so people always know when a tournament is going to start). When the tournament gets created, every person who has registered interest would have to confirm their interest, possibly via clicking on a link sent to them via PM.

It seems complicated when written down, but represented in a graphical form, I believe it would be very user friendly.

I haven't introduced the concept of Thematic Tournaments, as I thought that would complicate things a bit much for now. I also think this implementation would have to be run in parrallel with the current system, at least for a while.

In no way is this idea a finished product, and is open to everybody's input. It'd be nice to get some feedback from admin as well.

D

Bump to try to get some brainstorming on the idea.

This is something Russ is thinking of implementing in the future, so why not iron out any problems there may be with it.
http://www.timeforchess.com/board/showthread.php?threadid=72076

D

Originally posted by Ragnorak
Bump to try to get some brainstorming on the idea.

This is something Russ is thinking of implementing in the future, so why not iron out any problems there may be with it.
http://www.timeforchess.com/board/showthread.php?threadid=72076

D

Nice idea Ragnorak.

Here's how I might try implementing it - I'd start by asking what are all the criteria that go into creation of a tournament:
Number of entrants, time controls, group size, banded or open, pairing style - random or otherwise etc. etc. (I'm sure there is more)
Each of these criteria needs to be definable (openings are categorised in some system or other, are they not?, so thematic tournaments could also be catered for quite easily)

Then - somewhere - you can specify what kind(s) of tournament you'd like (the somewhere being a 'tournaments I'd like' page - or something).

Say I tick all the boxes that specify a 3 day timeout, 7 day timebank tourney with maximum group size of 4.
I'd maybe also like to enter a longer 7/14 tournament with more players - so I add another row to my 'wanted' list.

The next time one of those style tournaments pops up - I'd be automagically entered into it, and the 'wanted list' entry would be made inactive (not deleted, as I might want to build a few tournaments up simply by re-enabling it).

Once on the list of a prospective tournament it would behave just as now - you could duck out if you did so before it started, and when enough people are on board it starts. You could also (as now) just add yourself to an open (as yet un-started) tournament.

Admin could then see what tournaments were wanted - It would be easy to see that there was demand enough to create x tournaments with so-and-so criteria and know that they'd be filled straight off - and no one would have to 'get lucky' with entering a popular tournament. It's frustrating seeing some tournaments that you'd like to enter fill up too quickly.

As I understand it, this is a proposal to generate tournaments according to user requests, which could make the whole tournament business pretty chaotic. Here's an alternative option:

A standardised set of tournaments, both banded and unbanded, and not month-dated (perhaps they could have names such as Kamikaze III for a particular type). All being open at once, as soon as one fills it starts and at the same time Kamikaze IV opens, so that there's always a Kamikaze-type tournament available to enter. Users could still withdraw right up to playing-start and "My Pending" would allow you to plan your game load easily enough. It would soon become obvious to the organisers if a smaller/larger group size was necessary.

Anybody's thoughts?